The world's increase in demand for petroleum has pushed oil companies to explore areas where only a few decades ago it was considered as unattainable to drill for oil. Today subsea offshore drilling at depths of hundreds or thousands of feet is common. As the depth of exploration grows the technical challenges increase exponentially. It has become a very risky task to manage safely and efficiently drilling or production equipment at depths of 5,000 feet or more.
Take for instance the relatively recent BHP incident (2010) of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. Regardless if the reason for the accident was purely technical or by human responsibility the fact is that an uncontrolled oil spill occurred. For more than two months millions of gallons of oil leaked into the ocean out of control. The resulting environmental catastrophe brought a cluster of economic, social and environmental consequences that will last for years. The heavy burden of this misfortune falls on the shoulders of common people not related to the oil business. When such a disaster occurs the way of life of people that depend in one way or another on natural resources like fishery, tourism, etc., is adversely affected without possibility of recovery. It is clear that the trend to drill deeper wells will be maintained as long as the business continues to be highly profitable. For that reason new technical proposals need to be developed to confront and prevent possible catastrophes when things go wrong.
It is the intent of the present invention to provide an alternative technical resource to be used as an emergency tool if a leaking pipe goes out of control. It is expected that the device proposed could contribute in many cases as a temporary solution under emergency situations and win the most precious element while a permanent solution is found: time.